Oddly enough one of my best sellers are cat traps. If someone had suggested that I try to sell cat traps a year ago I would have thought they were crazy..
I'm considering an Edsy store to sell them . I just began building cedar planters too.. We'll see how they sell.   

Also build some from treated fence boards..They're a lot cheaper than cedar..just not nearly as good looking .
 I cleaned up the deck since I took this picture.. looks a bit better.  

This is the only way to catch cats.

I'd think you would be able to charge enough extra for the cedar to more than cover the increased cost of lumber.  More profit for same labor.

Cedar stands up to the weather and looks great.  Some people claim it keeps away bugs.

Cedar is softer and easier to work with.  

And I'll bet that big planter you had trouble carrying would have been a lot lighter made from cedar.

(06-17-2018, 08:57 PM)fredtoast Wrote: I'd think you would be able to charge enough extra for the cedar to more than cover the increased cost of lumber.  More profit for same labor.

Cedar stands up to the weather and looks great.  Some people claim it keeps away bugs.

Cedar is softer and easier to work with.  

And I'll bet that big planter you had trouble carrying would have been a lot lighter made from cedar.

agree

It would be pretty heavy if made of cedar since the cedar I buy is 4/4 material.  (lumber is sold by 1/4" thicknesses and referenced as 4s representing 1/4 inches.. 2/4 is half inch, 5/4 is 1 1/4", 8/4 is 2", etc..)
Anyway, the large planter is made from 5/8" thick treated fence boards.
I bought 20 board feet of cedar today.. pretty heavy stuff being all 4/4 material.   I could plane it all down to 5/8th inch, but there's no way I'm going to just waste that much material when it's   2.50 per bf..  fence boards on the other hand are just $1.65 each.. Quite a difference in material cost.  (I buy most of my lumber pre-bundled in 10 board feet bundles (4 foot piece) for the savings )
Home center stores have been ripping off the public for years by selling lumber by the linier foot and representing it as board feet..  Walk into HD for example and price a red oak 8 foot 1x6 .. It'll be sold @ around $4.50 per foot. (never board feet) That's actually less than 4 board feet, but they represent it as 8 board feet. Remember ,a board foot measures 12 inches long by 12 inches wide by 1 inch thick. The same 8 foot (8 board feet) in a lumber yard is a about 4.50 per board feet.. That's a lot of ripping off of the public.  The real rip off is in thinner material such as 1/4 inch thicknesses.. Do ya suppose anyone who owns the big box stores know they're ripping off the public by such huge margins? You betcha!  ..